Finding Josephine

Thanks everyone for the fantastic and easy pecan pie recipes you sent me. I was able to make a tasty pie that my family devoured at Thanksgiving. That's saying something since more than once, I've had to serve mac n cheese to my kids for dinner having made a meal that even I … [Read more...]

I've seen a lot of John Grisham's blockbuster movies, but I've never been inspired to read his books...until now. This week saw the debut of, Ford County, Grisham's short story collection based on the fictional Ford County in Mississippi.
I'm hoping his fiction will give me … [Read more...]

Last night I spent several hours researching in the tall stacks of a nearby college where the vibrant tree above stands at the campus entrance, a festive welcome to the all girls school in rural Virginia. The smell of musty books, thumbed by scores of coeds, faculty and visitors … [Read more...]

When I read the New York Times article last week about Michelle Obama's ancestry, the fact that her family lore had suspected a white relative for years underscored the importance of gathering oral history. For blacks, the paper trail often runs cold since many slave births and … [Read more...]

My earliest memories of my paternal grandfather, Martin Luther Ford, are of him sitting on his porch in the projects in the French Quarters of New Orleans. He was as white as any white man I’d ever seen, but I never questioned why he looked so different from my brothers and … [Read more...]